There are several disorders that affect the vulvovaginal area, examples of which include vulvodynia and vulvar vestibulitis syndrome. These diseases can case discomfort, and in some instances if left untreated can lead to more severe ailments. Due to the physical location of the diseases they are often difficult to diagnose, as visual assessments of vulvovaginal irritation can be quite difficult. Genital pigmentation and blood flow create an erythematous appearance that can mask underlying epithelial irritation. Moreover, certain vulvovaginal syndromes, such as vulvar vestibulitis syndrome and idiopathic vulvodynia, cause perplexing sensory effects without objective visual findings. Adding to the complication of proper diagnosis is that often the discomfort associated with the disease has no corresponding physical symptoms. This leads practitioners to inaccurate or incorrect diagnosis.
Presently most practitioners use some form of visual assessment of the vulvovaginal skin surface area to diagnose the cause of any discomfort. Such visual assessment is usually done with a colposcope. A colposcope functions as a lighted binocular microscope to magnify the skin surface view of the vulvovaginal area. However, when using visual assessment, discomfort in the vulvovaginal area is not always correlated with detectable physical symptoms. Thus, the absence of skin or mucosal lesions or visual signs of irritation cannot be explained and sometimes cannot be clear.
It would be desirable to provide a method that detects subsurface irritation indicative of vulvovaginal disorders.